Noel Gallagher: Beady Eye Had to Ask My Permission For Wonderwall Olympic Performance

added 15 August 2012 at 12.08

Noel Gallagher's told Xfm his brother Liam and Beady Eye had to get his permission to play Wonderwall at the Olympic closing ceremony on Sunday night...

Speaking ahead of his intimate show for Xfm and War Child at Dingwalls in Camden the former Oasis man explained how the Olympic Closing Ceremony organisers had to get his agreement for the iconic track - written by Noel - to be used by his brother/former bandmate's new band.

"They had to re-record it and then send it to me," he explained to Xfm's Danny Wallace.

"I did play a bit of cat and mouse with them for a few days - I took it 'til Friday night at ten o'clock before I said yes and they were shitting it. Not Beady Eye, the organisers. Because I had to say yeah and I was like 'meh... it's alright.... I'm not sure with this new string arrangement' and they were like 'fuck! the gig's on Sunday' so I was like 'okay, alright, you can have it then'."

Noel played the track himself at the tiny show - dedicating it to "Stratford's finest Oasis tribute band".

David Bowie, The Sex Pistols and The Rolling Stones all reportedly turned down the chance to appear in the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony according to The Guardian.

Noel admitted to Danny that he also said no to performing.

"I was asked to do it a long time ago and... to be frank.. they were being so secretive about it," he explained.

"I was like... 'who else is playing?' and they were like 'we can't tell you, you've got to sign a confidentiality agreement' - it's like it's the Iran nuclear programme or something.

"I mean what do they think is going to happen? ITV are going to get hold of it and put on a gig the night before with the same bill?!

"And then they wanted me to do it acoustically and then they wanted me to mime... and I'm all for miming in TV shows - I'm all for that - but if you're in a stadium with 80,000 people and you're pretending? I can play live! One of the organisers... I said [to him] 'why do you want me to mime?' and he said 'it's a big gig'. Really?! I do this shit for a living!'"

"In the end, I was just like... you know what I'd rather watch it on the telly."